pen tool is awesome in Illustrator
thats the main tool for it~
live trace is fail
clipping masks are awesome too

I have been lazy a couple times though to draw out everything in illustrator and then export to photoshop to shade and color that sometimes I just use the pen tool in photoshop xp
not as nice and easy to use as the pen tool in illustrator but it works well once you get used to it :)

Holy **** live trace is the ultimate piece of fail tool. You try to select the object and that takes a bajillion years to load even on the computers at school. I'm using the clipping mask now to make clouds... D:

Lol @ Sumo wrestler... :x

har har har
how cute.

The 2 swear words that we arent ever allowed to say in graphic design class:
live trace and (MS)paint
xD

I HATE live trace. I have to include that in my drawing but I @#$%ing hate it... it lags like hell and looks crappy.

you can change the mode so sometimes its halfway decent...kinda
but it sucks so badly
the lines arent 1 line
its a shape with like 100 billion little points D:

Exactly. It doesn't look bad it's just... a pain in the rear.

yush.
the "lines" are lumpy .___.
its way easier to just use the pen tool and draw it that way

Yeah... but he wants us to 'master the tools' so we have to incorporate that into our illustration. -headdesk- Which I shall go work on now...

I'm just waiting to finish all this tedious work so I can get to my Absolut ad project.